Coppola and Pedroni at Villa Pignatelli: the cello meets great cinema

A happy marriage between musicians with different histories and backgrounds, a transversal repertoire that brings together the music of Hollywood films and classical pages of nineteenth-century Europe: this is the winning formula of Christiana Coppola (cello) and Simone Pedroni (piano) who will perform on Thursday 29 May at 8:00 pm in Villa Pignatelli , the sixth concert of the 2025 season of the Maggio della Musica , in a recital of great charm: she is among the most brilliant cellists of the latest Italian generation; Simone Pedroni, already in the limelight in 1993 with the gold medal at the prestigious “Van Cliburn” award, is a refined interpreter, as well as an orchestra conductor, appreciated among many by John Williams, a genius of the soundtrack to whom Pedroni has been dedicating profitable attention for some time.

The program opens with the Phantasiestücke op. 73 , written by Schumann in 1849, which belong to a group of compositions conceived for private consumption, so as to fuel the practice of “Hausmusik” that was an integral part of German musical life; pieces intended for clarinet, violin, cello. This is followed by Gabriel Fauré’s Elegy in C Minor , a piece composed in 1883 and inspired by a profound lyricism, albeit controlled by the usual modesty. The form is simple, but carefully structured.

The music from “ Memoirs of a Geisha ,” a 2005 film directed by Rob Marshall, will arouse surprise and interest. The soundtrack with original songs, composed by John Williams, featured Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman as soloists. The music won the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award and the Grammy Award for best soundtrack. Williams has received 54 nominations and won 5 Oscars in his career.

The concert ends with Rachmaninov's Sonata for Cello and Piano op. 19 , a composition of enormous proportions, both structural and technical-musical. The piano requires a titanic technical effort, almost as if it were a solo score; the cello, to sustain a sound and an idea with orchestral breadth.